In a bid to reinvigorate Congress and end its 27-year exile from power in the politically important Uttar Pradesh in the upcoming Assembly polls, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi embarked upon a 2500 km-long Kisan Yatra today.

Rahul Gandhi’s Kisan Yatra: Targeting about 4 lakh Congress workers, the party has released around 250 “mini-raths”, each carrying 1,600 workers’ kit which contains publicity material, workers’ handbook along with ‘kisan maangpatra’ (charters of farmers’ demands).

Rahul Gandhi’s Kisan Yatra: Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today set out on a 2500 km-long Kisan Yatra starting from Deoria. The ‘Deoria to Dilli Yatra’ will be marked by a door-to-door campaign collecting ‘Kisan Mangpatras’ (charters of farmers demands, interaction with farmers through Khaat Sabha and various road shows at different places during the yatra.

Talking about his roadshow, the Gandhi scion tweeted, “My yatra from Deoria to Delhi starting September 6 is a campaign to secure the rights of the poor, farmers and labourers in government resources.”

UPDATES on Rahul Gandhi’s Kisan Yatra:

02.00 pm: After Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Khat Sabha’ ended in Rudrapur of Uttar Pradesh’s Dewaria district as the locals began fighting for ‘khats’ (wooden cots).

01.41 pm: Attacking PM Modi over his government’s alleged failure to address the problem of farmers, Rahul in Hindi tweeted, “Modi ji spoke a lot about farmers, but when his government came to power, they forgot the promises and the assurances they to those farmers.”

01.22 pm: When our party was in power, we developed many schemes to help the poor. We introduced MGNREGA, waived off their loan and what not. We have set out on this Yatra, so as to urge the Centre about the condition of farmers, says Rahul.

01.20 pm: There were 17 sugar mills in this district, but today all are shut. Who is responsible for it? The Central governemnt and the UP government have forgotten the farmers: Rahul Gandhi

01.18 pm: Congress Vice-President addresses gathering at Khaat Sabha. “I asked Modiji why is there so much difference in farmers’ rate and market rate? but didn’t get a reply” says Rahul.

Targeting about 4 lakh Congress workers, the party has released around 250 “mini-raths”, each carrying 1,600 workers’ kit which contains publicity material, workers’ handbook along with ‘kisan maangpatra’ (charters of farmers’ demands). The party has already verified a list of around 1.5 lakh workers in the districts which would fall in Rahul’s probable route.

During the mahayatra, the Congress leader will cover as many as 233 assembly constituencies to reach out to people ahead of crucial polls slated early next year. The mahayatra comes after successful road show of Sonia Gandhi earlier last month and the two yatras of state party leaders in various districts of the state. Earlier, the Congress had launched its Uttar Pradesh Assembly election campaign with the slogan “27 saal, UP behaal (27 year but UP in dire straits)” aiming to highlight the 27 years of poor governance since it lost power in the 1989 state elections to the now-defunct Janata Dal.